A site that aims to write informative biographies about the world's longest-lived people.

04 December 2011

Besse Cooper

Besse Berry Brown-Cooper is a supercentenarian who was born on 26 August 1896 and who currently resides in Monroe, Georgia, United States. At age 115 years, 100 days, she is the 22nd oldest recorded person in history, eight days behind Susie Gibson (31 October 1890 - 16 February 2006), who died aged 115 years, 108 days. She is currently the last living link to the year 1896, following the death of Chiyono Hasegawa (20 November 1896 - 2 December 2011) at age 115 years, 12 days.Cooper is presently the world's oldest person, a title that she has been recognised with twice to date. The first time was on 31 January 2011, when Eunice Sanborn of Texas, United States died at the age of 114 years, 195 days. Sanborn, who was born on 20 July 1896, died after what was recognised as a 88-day reign that began on 4 November 2010 upon the death of Eugénie Blanchard from Saint Barthélemy, France.At that time, the title was then handed to Cooper, who was aged 114 years, 158 days at the time, then considered the highest age that any world's oldest person had taken the title at in the previous year and half.

Cooper, seen here at her 113th birthday party on 26 August 2009.
At the time, she was recognised as the world's twelfth-oldest living person.

On 18 May 2011, Guinness World Records released an official statement that Maria Gomes Valentim of Brazil, born 9 July 1896, had been recognised as the world's oldest person, in a move unprecedented since 9 December 2005, when Maria Capovilla (14 September 1889 - 27 August 2006, aged 116 years 347 days) of Ecuador had displaced Elizabeth Bolden (15 August 1890 - 11 December 2006, aged 116 years 118 days) of the United States as the world's oldest person. Cooper was then moved back to the position of world's second-oldest at age 114 years, 265 days, after being recognised as the world's oldest for 107 days.Valentim died 34 days later, on 21 June 2011, aged 114 years, 347 days, and the title was handed back to Cooper, a honour she has held ever since, for a total of 166 days as of 4 December 2011. Cooper was aged 114 years 299 days at the time of Valentim's death, which makes her the oldest person ever to take the "world's oldest person" title out of all those who took it at age 114 and the seventh-oldest "new" titleholder since 1955.

Cooper in August 2004, aged 108.

On 26 August 2011, Cooper celebrated her 115th birthday as the first person to do so for almost two and a half years, since Gertrude Baines of Los Angeles, California, turned 115 on 6 April 2009. There were no living validated 115-year-olds from Baines' death on 11 September 2009 to the eve of Cooper's 115th birthday, for a total duration of 1 year, 348 days. Media coverage was kept to one press photographer, who took the first photograph at the top of this post of Cooper on her 115th birthday.Cooper is the oldest person to date ever born in the year 1896, a distinction she earned on 9 August 2011, aged 114 years, 348 days, having surpassed Maria Gomes Valentim's age. On 19 August 2011, she also became the oldest person ever to date to have lived in the 2010s decade, having surpassed Kama Chinen (10 May 1895 - 2 May 2010), who died aged 114 years, 357 days.Cooper, who graduated from East Tennessee State University in 1916 aged 20, had parents who were step-siblings; Richard Brown (1861-1932), her father, was the son of Cooper's grandmother, with her husband being the father of Cooper's mother, Angeline Berry (1866-1927). Both Cooper's parents were borne through her grandparents' previous marriages, with the opposite spouse predeceasing them in both cases. Her married name is derived from her husband, Luther Cooper (1895-1963). As of her 115th birthday, she had four living children, with the eldest being born when she was 33 and the youngest when she was 48; as a former schoolteacher, Cooper was not permitted to have children during her teaching term.

1 comment:

Welcome to Supercentenarian Study, a site about the oldest people in the world!

By definition, a supercentenarian is someone who has achieved the age of 110 or over. Currently, the world's oldest living person is Jiroemon Kimura of Kyoto, Japan, who celebrated his 115th birthday on 19 April 2012. He is also the world's oldest living man since April 2011. The world's oldest woman is currently Koto Okubo of Kanagawa, Japan, who celebrated her 114th birthday on 24 December 2011.

About This Site

The intent of this site is to educate interested individuals about particularly long-lived people through the writing of individual biographies and lists.

As the biographies on this site are not written with the subject’s given consent, the need for privacy will be observed as far as possible in each post. As such, to prevent being intrusive, no biographical information will be featured that is not already present in books or on public Internet sites. Information known to be false, even if consistently reported in third-party sources, will not be included.

As United States population censuses are public record effective 72 years from the date enumeration for that census begins, information in them pertaining to supercentenarians may be included. The United States Social Security Death Index is also public record; therefore information in it may also be included.

Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information in each post; however, as with almost all endeavours, errors are inevitable and corrections are welcome.

Inclusion Criteria

The inclusion criteria for subjects in biographies on this site are as follows:

1) Must have an age of 108 or over, validated or unvalidated, if they are not notable for anything other than their longevity. Exceptions to this rule are people who are currently or were the oldest living in their country of birth or residence;

2) Must have an age of 107 or over, verified or unverified, if they are notable for something other than their longevity, or if they are notable for being a veteran of either or both of the World Wars;

3) Must have an unvalidated or otherwise dubious claim to extreme longevity with a claimed age of at least 113 years. It should be noted that most of the true living supercentenarians are between the ages of 110 and 113; less than two percent of 110-year-olds manage to reach 115.

4) For long-lived twins or married couples to be featured as a pair in a single post, the younger of them must be at least 100 years old. Long-lived married couples must have been married for at least 80 years. Posts on centenarian siblings will be made only if all subjects have sufficient media coverage.

Men aged 113 or more and women aged 115 or more are less likely to be included, due to their rarity.